Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 79
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 79
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 79
"O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps." — Psalms 79:1 (ASV)
Inheritance. — Probably intended to embrace both land and people. (Exodus 15:17; Psalms 74:2; and others.)
Heaps — that is, ruins. (Jeremiah 26:18; and in the singular, Micah 1:6.)
"The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food unto the birds of the heavens, The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth." — Psalms 79:2 (ASV)
In addition to references in Margin, see Deuteronomy 28:26.
Saints. —Hebrew, chasîdîm. (See Note, Psalms 16:10.) Here with definite allusion to the Hasideans of 1 Maccabees 7.
"Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; And there was none to bury them." — Psalms 79:3 (ASV)
Their blood. — In 1 Maccabees 7:17, we read, The flesh of thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them, introduced by “according to the word which he wrote.” This is evidently a free quotation from this psalm and seems to imply a reference to a contemporary.
None to bury. — For this aggravation of the evil, compare to Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 22:18–19.
"We are become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us." — Psalms 79:4 (ASV)
This verse occurs in Psalm 44:13. It is also possibly a Maccabean psalm (see the introduction to that psalm).
The scenes still witnessed by travellers at the Jews’ wailing-place offer a striking illustration of the foregoing verses, showing, as they do, how deep-seated is the love of an ancient place in the Eastern mind (see a striking description in Porter’s Giant Cities of Bashan).
"How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" — Psalms 79:5 (ASV)
How long, Lord? —The dominant cry of the Maccabean age. (See Psalms 74:9.)
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